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Tuesday, 30 April 2013

Writing is like tennis

My husband is mad about tennis so I often have to resort to similes to explain my position.

Cooking the dinner is like tennis, you have to peel a few carrots to... Bringing in the clothes off the line is like tennis...

Strangely enough he always listens when I mention the word.

Tonight I realised that writing is like tennis. You work on your forehand, your backhand, your service. You warm up. You learn how to keep the score. Then you put it all together to play a match and it can be surprising how it all comes together.

Tonight I played my first real tennis match and won! (I filled in for the A-team a couple of weeks ago and lost badly, but I don't count that.)

The hardest part was actually deciding to put my name down for the competition but now I'm glad I did.

It's easy to work on the craft of writing and let the years roll by. It's easy to read the how-to books, analyse, edit. But it's a big step to actually send off that first query. I was planning to send it out in January, then February, then March. I can't believe April has come and gone and I still haven't managed to submit. But I will. In May. Am excited and petrified at the same time.